


breaking, beyond

by cirrus (themorninglark)



Series: rareprompts [14]
Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Studying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 04:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4464878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/pseuds/cirrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rei grips his pencil too hard. The way his thumb presses into its solid metal barrel would break lesser bodies, has, on more than one occasion, broken Rin's palms, left fault lines running through the creases of his wrists when they joined hands in the water.</p>
            </blockquote>





	breaking, beyond

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AkikoDesu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkikoDesu/gifts).



> For akikolikesstuff, who asked for RinRei studying.
> 
> I wanted to do something a bit different with this, something that felt razor-sharp and intense, because RinRei tends to lend itself a bit more to dork humour and I wanted to try something more serious. I enjoyed the challenge, hope you like it!

The tip of Rei's mechanical pencil breaks with a _snap_ that cracks the very air in the room.

He's holding a ruler steady with those long fingers of his, fingers that Rin remembers the feel of, resting on his palm in the water at night. His nails are always perfectly cut. His knuckles are pale. There is a half-drawn isosceles triangle on the page, the precision of its line impeccable, save for that one place where it's now gone jagged. Rei's triangles are faultless.

Rin, with characteristic discipline, lets his gaze flicker upward for only the merest of moments. The second hand on the wall clock ticks. He looks down again.

They are of one mind, the two of them: that the early days of summer are for studying, that if they don't get all their work out of the way right from the start, they can't _fucking relax_ and enjoy vacation. Rei, in any case, sweats like crazy when it's hot out, and Rin burns under the lightest touch of the sun.

The thin sliver of lead slides across Rei's math practice paper. It leaves graphite and dust in its wake, and the echo of its fracturing is harsh and real in the space of their shared silence. Rin knows that Rei doesn't buy cheap, flimsy lead. He has seen the red plastic case; Pentel 0.5mm 2B or nothing.

Rei grips his pencil too hard. The way his thumb presses into its solid metal barrel would break lesser bodies, has, on more than one occasion, broken Rin's palms, left fault lines running through the creases of his wrists when they joined hands in the water.

Rin still feels them, a provocation, stinging his skin. _Here_ , the universe whispers, sultry. _Here is someone with your fire in his veins. Breathe him in._

There is a war inside them, and it is not the kind that seeks peace, but victory; and they war not with each other, but with the greatest enemy of all. In the looming, unforgiving shadows of a thousand inferiorities and the half-lies they tell themselves, Rin knows:

They're breaking the hell out of here.

 _Here_ , like, not exactly _Iwatobi_ here, because it's not like there's anything wrong with the town, and Rin's already done the whole running away thing. It was glorious. It was folly. It was all kinds of right and all kinds of wrong and it was a goddamned hard slog. He's leaving again, but for a different reason this time.

 _Here_ , like, the kind of here that's drawn up in limits and boundaries and what they believe, what they _think_ they believe about themselves.

They're more than that.

Summer is drowsy, and Rin is restless, always restless. He's parched, and there's a thirst in Rei too that he recognises, _understands_. They are here, spending this afternoon bent over trigonometry because this is their ticket out of a gilded cage, and that _snap_ 's the sweetest sound that Rin has heard all day. Not for them the simple unlocking of a door and stepping out, no - they _break_ through bars, spark heat where they _touch_ , where the two of them meet -

They collide, ignite, light up the earth and shake themselves sane at the precipice of falling. They catch each other, moments before they're pushing again to throw caution to the wind. There's always the next step. The next big thing.

Rin, romantic, believes in _destiny_ ; Rei does not, but the lines between them have blurred, intertwined with a rush that's heady and palpable, and where Rin's learned all over again just how _far_ sheer hard work and stupid persistence can get a person, Rei's learned that there some things that defy his neatly-ordered laws of existence.

The second hand ticks again. Rei puts down his pencil.

His hand does not shake. He clears the broken lead off his paper with a careful fastidiousness, blows the dust away, and erases the line to start afresh.

Beyond the confines of what they've inscribed, the world awaits.

 


End file.
